By GREGORY ZELLER //
October 3 is an exciting day for SUNY Old Westbury’s official radio station, which is scheduled to join a worldwide broadcasting event.
Welcome to World College Radio Day, an annual first-Friday-of-October collaboration designed to promote college and high school radio stations around the globe. Organized by the New Jersey-based College Radio Foundation, the 24-hour marathon stitches together special programming from schools in 20 countries, all highlighting student-run radio stations as platforms for diverse voices, local news and creative expression.
Four U.S. schools, including SUNY Old Westbury, are part of this year’s epic broadcast, with OWWR (Old Westbury Web Radio) scheduled to take over the broadcast beginning at 11 a.m. Friday.
Joseph Manfredi, a SUNY Old Westbury lecturer and the OWWR station manager, said station staffers were thrilled to participate in an international event that trumpets the “power and impact of college radio on a global scale.”
Joseph Manfredi: Radio city.
“World College Radio Day celebrates the power of this medium to share ideas and information within a community – whether that means on campus, in the neighborhood or around the world,” noted Manfredi, an instructor in SUNY Old Westbury’s Media & Communications Program. “We are honored, humbled and proud to continue to be on this platform in our craft.”
College radio fights an uphill battle in the Digital Age, as worldwide listeners increasingly turn toward major-league streaming sources and away from traditional radio options. But as a provider of entertainment and a clearing house for critical news updates, the medium – largely reimagined as “web radio,” in which Internet connectivity replaces traditional radio waves – is alive and well, according to Manfredi.
“Radio still continues to act in the interest, convenience and necessity of the public and still comes in first during any crisis,” the station manager said. “This medium has been bringing people together since the industry dawned more than 100 years ago, enabling the importance and power of free speech all along the way.”
In line with World College Radio Day’s 2025 theme (“Tune in to the people”), Production Director Angelina Zavala and other OWWR team members are slated to discuss several hot-button topics with members of the SUNY Old Westbury faculty and greater Long Island community – including Title IX concerns, student immigration issues, campus safety and other issues exacerbated by current White House leadership.
Deliberations on student mental wellness during changing times, artificial intelligence’s role in education and equal opportunities for individuals with disabilities are also planned.
This is not the first time OWWR has participated in a marathon-length college-radio event. With national election hysteria at a fever pitch last November, the station joined Student News Live – a nonpartisan news hub created by the iHeart Radio Network, the NBCU Academy and PBS Newshour Student Reporting Labs – as part of a special 24-hour election-coverage event.
And earlier this year, the SUNY Old Westbury station participated in its 15th Vinylthon, a worldwide collaboration of more than 230 radio stations playing nothing but content from old-style vinyl records. During that April sprint, OWWR earned a “Golden Slipmat Award” (for 24 hours of continuous live airplay) and a “Diamond Slipmat Award” (for 48 hours), ultimately airing 76 consecutive hours of vinyl-exclusive broadcasting.
That was fun for OWWR staffers. But for the web radio station – which provides streaming audio and video content 24 hours a day, seven days a week – participating in World College Radio Day is more of a personal mission, according to Manfredi.
“OWWR is honored to share the stage with so many amazing stations around the globe,” the station manager added. “I am beyond proud of what the entire OWWR team (has) accomplished.”
